Mideast Peace Talks To Resume
Secretary Of State Rice Prods Palestinian President To Back Off Gaza Truce Ultimatum
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In this photo released by the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas walks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Palestinian presidential headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, March 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Palestinian Authority)
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Israeli soldiers, one holding the Israeli flag, return from the Gaza Strip to a staging area along the Israel-Gaza border, Tuesday, March 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, March 4, 2008. talks focused on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
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A Palestinian man examines the damage to his house destroyed in an Israeli missile strike overnight, in the Northern Gaza Strip town of Jebaliya, March 3, 2008. In the early hours of Monday, Palestinians counted nine separate Israeli airstrikes on weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, a Hamas headquarters and groups of gunmen, all over Gaza. Five Palestinians were killed in the strikes, all of them Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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Israelis take cover after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants hit a building in Ashkelon, Israel, March 3, 2008. Three rockets hit the city of 120,000 on Monday morning, with one hitting an apartment building. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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Mideast Conflict
Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas broke off talks at the beginning of the week to protest an exceptionally deadly Israeli military assault in the Gaza Strip, where militants affiliated with the ruling Islamic Hamas movement have been barraging southern Israel with rockets.
"I have been informed by the parties that they intend to resume negotiations and are in contact with one another as to how to bring this about," Rice said at a news conference in Jerusalem following a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Abbas backed off remarks he made earlier in the day, when he said he would not resume negotiations until Israel reaches a truce in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. "The peace process is a strategic choice and we have the intention of resuming the peace process,'' he said in a statement.
He did not say when talks would restart, but Rice said in Jerusalem that a U.S. general overseeing implementation of "the road map" peace plan would hold his first joint meeting with Israelis and Palestinians next week.
At a news conference alongside her Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, in Jerusalem, Rice declined to call for a truce, and urged Hamas to halt its rocket fire.
In January, President Bush appointed Lt. Gen. William Fraser III to monitor both sides' compliance with the road map, a milestone-based plan that has been the basis of talks that resumed in November after a seven-year break.
Both sides, Rice said, need to carry out road map obligations to have "robust" peace negotiations. The plan's initial stage calls on Israel to stop settlement activity and obliges the Palestinians to clamp down on militants. Abbas, however, controls only the West Bank and has no influence over Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since a violent takeover in June.
The return to negotiations has been troubled by violence and continued Israeli construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. Tensions peaked over the past week after Gaza militants extended the range of their fire closer to Israel's center, and Israel struck back with an assault that Gaza officials say killed more than 120 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians.
Confidence-building measures have been critical to the peacemaking, and Rice asserted Wednesday that "we do need to have improvements on the ground."
"The negotiations must be started, but after the truce," Abbas had said earlier in the day. "Once the truce is achieved the road will be open for negotiations."
He said Rice told him she would send an envoy to Egypt, which often mediates between Israel and Hamas. "There are real efforts being exerted by Egypt for the truce," Abbas said.
Although Abbas did not mention Hamas by name, his aides said the Islamic group must clearly be part of a deal. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas' forces last year, and he wields little influence in the area.
The aides said Abbas has proposed a package in which Hamas halts its relentless rocket barrages on southern Israel if Israel ends its attacks on Palestinian militants and Egypt reopens its border with Gaza. It was not said whether the proposal would factor in to discussions with Fraser next week.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev declined to discuss the parameters of any possible deal but suggested Israel could be open to a cease-fire. "If they were not shooting at our civilian population, we would not have to respond," he said.
During the recent fighting, Hamas fired rockets deeper into Israel than ever before. Israeli officials fear that Hamas will use the lull of a cease-fire to rearm.
Rice met earlier Wednesday with Palestinian peace negotiators, hoping to persuade them to resume talks. CBS News correspondent Robert Berger reports it was the last of a two-day "rescue mission" by Rice, who seemed set to return to Washington having won no solid concessions from either side.
A day earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pointedly resisted Rice's pressure to return to the negotiating table, saying Israel had to first "halt its aggression" - a reference to the recent military operations against Gaza rocket squads.
Privately, Palestinian officials have said Abbas is open to renewing talks, but because of domestic pressures, will have to wait several days to do so. But before Rice met with Palestinian officials, on Wednesday, no such message had been delivered to her or Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, they said.
Much is expected to depend on the level of violence in Gaza in the coming days. Gaza was quiet Wednesday, and there were no reports of Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel.
The most recent violence came Tuesday night, as about 25 Israeli armored vehicles rumbled into southern Gaza and clashed with militants. A 1-month-old baby was killed in the crossfire, a medical official said.
The Israeli tanks fired shells and attack helicopters fired missiles during the clashes, Palestinian witnesses said.
Rice met with Olmert late Tuesday and had meetings scheduled with Israel's foreign and defense ministers Wednesday before departing for Europe.
While urging Abbas to resume the talks, she also asked the Israelis to do all they could to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper also said she promoted the idea of a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian fighters affiliated with Hamas, the Islamic group that rules Gaza.
This is a process that always takes two steps forward and one step back. We just need to make sure that it's just one step back.
President Bush"I understand the difficulties of the current moment," she said. "We all must keep an eye on what is important."
In remarks made Tuesday, Rice laid the blame for the stalled peace talks squarely at the feet of Hamas. "Negotiations are going to have to be able to withstand the efforts of rejectionists to upset them, to create chaos and violence, so that people react by deciding not to negotiate," Rice said in Egypt at the start of her two day visit to the region.
Abbas is locked in a bitter rivalry with Hamas, which violently seized control of Gaza last June after routing his forces. Still, Abbas claims to be the leader of Gaza, and he suspended peace talks earlier this week to protest Israel's latest crackdown there. Palestinian hospital officials say more than half the dead in Gaza were civilians.
At Tuesday's news conference, Rice won no public promise that Palestinians would end their boycott soon. Abbas is not expected to relent before Rice leaves the Middle East.
"I call on the Israeli government to halt its aggression so the necessary environment can be created to make negotiations succeed, for us and for them, to reach the shores of peace in 2008," Abbas said.
He was referring to the goal - stated at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in November - of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty by the end of the year.
"No one can under any kind of pretext justify what the Israeli military have conducted over the past days," an angry Abbas told reporters, with Rice at his side.
The best Rice got from Abbas during their joint public appearance in Ramallah was affirmation that his government remains pledged to the peace path charted by President Bush last fall. The negotiations are supposed to yield a deal outlining an independent Palestinian state.
The violence transformed Rice's scheduled mission. Instead of trying to encourage the peace talks, she was forced to try to restore them.
The Bush administration has staked peace hopes on Abbas' West Bank government, while freezing out Hamas, which is pledged to Israel's destruction.
In Washington, Mr. Bush said he remains optimistic.
With only 10 months left in his presidency, Mr. Bush said Tuesday he still believes there is "plenty of time" to get a Mideast peace deal before his term ends.
"This is a process that always takes two steps forward and one step back," Mr. Bush said after meeting at the White House with Jordan's King Abdullah II. "We just need to make sure that it's just one step back."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 206 CommentsPresident Bush
Could someone tell me WHERE this Administration has taken any steps FORWARD? President Clinton had these people a lot closer to a deal that Sir Lies-A-Lot has EVER gotten them. All this Administration will ever be remember for is FAILURE. One after the next after the next after the next.
But thats right people like you support the cowardly Hamas who use infants and children as shields.
If God was protecting his people why did he allow
the Christians to exterminate like 6 million of them in
World War 2. (Hypocrite)
Posted by singinrick
That''s probably what they say about your religion. Who says your god or any god isn''t false?
would be qamar allah.
Also, Arab Christians use ALLAH all the time
singinrick, stop spreading lies, Christians are very
good at that
So no you dont understand it, and yes Hitler was a
Christian (STOP LYING)
Posted by singinrick
Bible prophecy to a T, depending how you interpret it.
Type "Christian Arabs" in Youtube and notice how they
use Allah lol, you are really ignorant
Actually, what she''s doing is encouraging the Israeli''s not to make peace by using the excuse that Hamas are terrorists. As usual it''s just an excuse for the Neocons to block any type of peace in the Middle East.
Thanks to-- Quetzal0666
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Passau, 27 October 1928, Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall''s The Holy Reich]
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in March 1933
[Note, "Except the Lord built the house, they labour in vain" comes from Psalms 127:1 ]
Also, I know Arabic which is very close to Aramaic so my understanding of the original text is way better than yours... oo btw Im not Arab :)
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Posted by singinrick at 08:34 AM : Mar 05, 2008
+ report abuse
Go get a copy of Mein Kamp and stop being so ignorant!! You people really need to educate yourself somewhat. By the way you said something yesterday that HAD to be the most racist thing I''ve ever heard in my life. Sarge said that our founders were LIBERAL''s, which they were. YOU came back with Washington was a "Christian" who believed in Christ thus he could NOT have been a Liberal. Just WHO the Helll do you think was on the front lines against all those Christian "conservatives" during the 60''s? Without a doubt they were LIBERAL and YES they WERE Christian''s! You people make me sick with your bigotry and racism.
-Adolf Hitler, 26 April 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall''s The Holy Reich]
-Adolf Hitler, giving prayer in a speech on May Day 1933
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on 24 Oct. 1933
[This statement clearly refutes modern Christians who claim Hitler as favoring atheism.]
-Adolf Hitler, in his New Year Message on 1 Jan. 1934
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=374_1180813358
http://www.beyondimages.info/b103.html
http://www.afsi.org/arablies.htm
http://www.zionism-israel.com/vic/Terror_1967_1993.htm
the original bible that Jesus revealed not the one that
Paul wrote. OO wait it does not exist today LOL
-Adolf Hitler, on 26 June 1934, to Catholic bishops to assure them that he would take action against the new pagan propaganda
National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary it stands on the ground of a real Christianity.... For their interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of to-day, in our fight against a Bolshevist culture, against atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for a consciousness of a community in our national life... These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles! And I believe that if we should fail to follow these principles then we should to be able to point to our successes, for the result of our political battle is surely not unblest by God.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech at Koblenz, to the Germans of the Saar, 26 Aug. 1934
http://www.historyofjihad.org/israel.html
And we know that were the great German reformer [Martin Luther] with us to-day he would rejoice to be freed from the necessity of his own time and, like Ulrich von Hutten, his last prayer would be not for the Churches of the separate States: it would be of Germany that he would think and of the Evangelical Church of Germany.
-Adolf Hitler, in his Proclamation at the Parteitag at Nuremberg on 5 Sept. 1934
AS A SAVIOUR...NO WERE IN THE BIBLE..... ALSO,
TRINITY WAS MADE UP BY AN IDOL WORSHIPER LOL LOL
TECHNICAL YOU WORSHIP 3 GODS OR IS 3 IN 1 OR 1 IN 3 LOL
dont be scared, take your meds, look for a job and live happily ever after, oh and learn to see the issues, not the precepts of men.....
-Adolf Hitler, in Berlin, 01 May 1935
IDOL WORSHIPER LOL
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Wurzburg on 27 June 1937
LIAR,
Paranoid Delusional bum.
give you many that contradict you!
Why would GOD kill sacrifice himself to save humanity and in turn allow them to be ******* and fornicators
People re wrote the scriptures to include the words,
Jeshua was the first liberal in modern times,
and in order to discredit a simple message they turned him into a man god..
Posted by Quetzal0666
It''s too late, he''s already been formulated from exposure to the bible which has regrettably led to decreased cognitive and objective reasoning abilities.
Were these people http://youtube.com/watch?v=4zblI9xDF2I
Terrorist?
like singinrick crying Islamic Jihad
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4zblI9xDF2I
ou shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them (Exodus 20:1-5)
Jesus said to him, %u201CAway from me, Satan! For it is written: %u2018Worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve.%u2019%u201D (Matthew 4:10)
%u201CThe most important one,%u201D answered Jesus, %u201Cis this: %u2018Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one (Mark 12:32)
* %u201CAs it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.%u201D (John 8:40)
* %u201CBy myself I can do nothing: I judge only as I hear.%u201D (John 5:30)
* %u201CBut in vain they do worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.%u201D (Matthew 15:9)
Similarly, the Gospels portray Jesus as a human man in all respects:
* On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus (Luke 2:21)
* %u201CThe son of man came eating and drinking, and you say, %u2018Here is a gluttonous man%u2026%u2019%u201D (Matthew 11:19)
* Jesus replied, %u201CFoxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.%u201D (Matthew 8:20)
* One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. (Luke 6:12)
* Jesus wept (John 11:35)
* %u201CAs it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.%u201D (John 8:40)
* %u201CBy myself I can do nothing: I judge only as I hear.%u201D (John 5:30)
* %u201CBut in vain they do worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.%u201D (Matthew 15:9)
Similarly, the Gospels portray Jesus as a human man in all respects:
* On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus (Luke 2:21)
* %u201CThe son of man came eating and drinking, and you say, %u2018Here is a gluttonous man%u2026%u2019%u201D (Matthew 11:19)
* Jesus replied, %u201CFoxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.%u201D (Matthew 8:20)
* One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. (Luke 6:12)
* Jesus wept (John 11:35)
I have work now, it was fun whipping you singinrick
BURNED BURNED BURNED
I certainly pray that one day you''''ll take off the blinders and see the light Displeased, for your sake.
Posted by singinrick
What I see is a religious war that you support because of your bible''s prophecies. Not a cause worth fighting for.
Great Job dude...
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was With God and the Word WAS God
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Posted by singinrick at 09:01 AM : Mar 05, 2008
It depends on which words of the Bible you want to believe. The actual words God spoke...and that Jesus of Nazreth spoke, or which some men wrote down claiming they''re speaking for both...but with a little clicker...their own agenda.
God''s words and Jesus'' words were very simple and if you read the reality in them instead of the fantasy, you will see a very simple clear message bringing instruction on how you should live your life on this earth.
"southern Baptists are Religious and follow a religion, this also mustr be put in its place, theres no need to mingle religion with government.
unless we want a hitler like character here in the U.S. under guise of being christian, attacking everything that moves and having no reguard for international laws..
oh.. wait...............
* %u201CAs it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.%u201D (John 8:40)
* %u201CBy myself I can do nothing: I judge only as I hear.%u201D (John 5:30)
* %u201CBut in vain they do worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.%u201D (Matthew 15:9)
Similarly, the Gospels portray Jesus as a human man in all respects:
* On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus (Luke 2:21)
* %u201CThe son of man came eating and drinking, and you say, %u2018Here is a gluttonous man%u2026%u2019%u201D (Matthew 11:19)
* Jesus replied, %u201CFoxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.%u201D (Matthew 8:20)
* One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. (Luke 6:12)
* Jesus wept (John 11:35)
O hey dont want people to forget the truth
bring a more balanced humane look at the middle east
situation instead of a biased 1 way hallucination..
Posted by singinrick
Hey rick, is there supposed to be some kind of battle of armageddon eventually? You hope because christ can''t return without it, right?
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